I've released my documentary film on the history of the right to arms, "In Search of the Second Amendment." It stars twelve professors of constitutional law, plus Steve Halbrook, David Kopel, Don Kates, and Clayton Cramer. You can order the DVD here. And here's the Wikipedia page on it. SUPREME COURT SPECIAL: additional orders only $10 each.

Self defense figures by race

Posted by David Hardy · 31 August 2009 12:56 PM

Howard Nemerov has some charts and statistics on justifiable homicide, race, and right to carry laws. Basically: in RTC States, blacks are on the giving end of nearly 50% of self-defense homicides (i.e., justifiable), and in non RTC States the percentage drops by nearly half. Howard notes this indicates that RTC laws are of special benefit to black Americans, since they are more likely to be put in a position where self-defense is vital.

I wonder how much of this is a real effect, and how much is statistics being skewed by bad laws. What I mean is are black really less likely to defend themselves in less gun friendly states, or are they defending themselves but hiding from the police later for fear of prosecution.

A disproportionate amount of "street" or violent crime that would give rise to a justified defense is black on black.
It's not surprising that Blacks would benefit most from rational gun laws and I think John Lott made some points re this.

This statistic could be explained numerous ways. One possible explanation is given identical facts in a sample self-defense scenario, in a RTC state it would be ruled justifiable by the prosecutor/judge, whereas with identical facts a prosecutor/judge in a non-RTC state would find it was not self defense, and force the would-be defender to plea to a lesser charge or face trial.

There's so much fudge in the courthouse that there is no such thing as apples to apples comparisons when comparing different jurisdictions.